Neil O'Donnell

The powerful wizard Crarnock has decided to wipe out humanity with the combination of his magic and his goblin hordes. In order to mount a resistance, the people opposing him must put aside their prejudices, band together and work as one.

My huge problem was that this needed a lot more editing. I'm not talking about just a few typos here and there, I'm talking about lots of typos, incorrect word usage that spell checker will always miss, characters saying gonna when their speech has otherwise been very formal, formatting mistakes, and more. It could also have used a general tightening up of the storyline. I did read a finished copy, not an ARC. I would have had a hard time overlooking all of this even if it had been an ARC.

There were about three gigantic info dumps. I will say that O'Donnell has obviously spent a lot of time thinking about this world he's created, from the history and mythology right down to the smallest details, but my eyes glazed over as I read about the religious history and shifting power between the knights and druids. One character was supposed to be telling another the history, but when that one character talks for pages and pages, I have to call it an info dump.

The story itself was okay. I couldn't help but compare it to [b:The Lord of the Rings|33|The Lord of the Rings (#1-3)|J.R.R. Tolkien|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1156043001s/33.jpg|3462456]. I don't want to go into that too much and give anything away, but I think even from my brief synopsis you can see that there's going to be a little similarity. There was a lot of similarity in the overall arc of the story, but the details were different, if that makes any sense. I honestly never managed to finish The Lord of the Rings, so it didn't bother me too much.

There's a small thread of romance woven into the book and I didn't buy it at all. The guy was great, if a little too perfect, but the woman was just mean to everyone, including him. There's all this stuff about knights and druids not getting along, so I could almost buy it if she was just mean to the knights and got over her prejudice, but she was mean to the druids too. Just plain mean.

I did like the way the knights and druids had to face their prejudices against each other and overcome them in order to survive. That part worked because I saw where they were coming from and I saw the way the relationships evolved. It was believable.

I also liked that we got a little of Crarnock's back story and why he hated people so much. I would have liked a little more than I got, but I definitely got a good idea of why he acted the way he did.

This might work for people who are huge fans of high fantasy if they really don't mind editing problems. I am a bit of a stickler for editing. In all honesty, I can't recommend it though. I would be upset if I paid for a book that read like a rough draft.

I received a review copy from the author.… (més)

There are times when enemies must set aside their differences in order to fight a common enemy. For the Knights and Druids, that time has come. Once friends, paranoia and church rumors created tension between the two peoples. Eventually driven to animosity and violence, the cultures separated ways and the Druids took to the forests. Centuries later, both are dealing with fighting Crarnock, an angry wizard who had been shunned by the humans. Taking to the mountains, he unified the goblins and created an army for the purpose of destroying the humans he hated.

Happening upon a group of Druids being attacked by goblins, Sir Harrison of Corrington chooses to overlook their differences and help. Returning with the Druids to their village, Harrison quickly learns that the druids are not the savages he’d been raised to believe they were. When his fellow knights come looking for him, he tells them what he’s learned and suggests they unite to defeat Crarnock. It will take all the force of both groups to battle the goblins. A small team is dispatched to attempt to foil Crarnock's plans before they unfold, and if they can't succeed, humankind is doomed.

An epic battle, a dangerous quest, a forbidden romance, and a mysterious prophecy are just a few of the events that take place in People of the Sword. Will the humans prevail? Or are they no match for the dark magic at work?

I enjoyed reading People of the Sword. With many of the ideas, such as knights and Druids, drawn from history, it’s an interesting angle on the good versus evil storyline. Much of the story seems plausible- one can almost believe the events actually happened and the people and settings are pulled from history- until one considers the presence of goblins and wizards. One of the things I liked about this book was how it flowed. Whenever things seemed to slow down for one group (e.g. travel time), the perspective shifted to another group. This keeps the reader from becoming bored, as well as provides multiple perspectives of the events taking place. The various perspectives also helped with understanding the motives and thoughts of each character. It’s one thing to know there’s an evil wizard out to destroy humanity, but it’s far more interesting to gain a little perspective as to why he’s so angry. It also added to the overall storyline. Rather than a constant tale of war preparation and travel, there are stories of the characters and the history of their land intertwined.

The only negative thing that truly stood out to me in this book was that the romance seemed forced. There’s this whole “Romeo & Juliet” type relationship that is taking place, and it ends up playing a major role in the outcome of the story, but it doesn’t feel right. They went from being total strangers to being “in love” in short order. They go from having minimal communication to having an awkward tender moment without much taking place to change their negative opinions of one another. I don’t know if I’d call their feelings for one another, developed while forced into each other’s presence for a duration of time during a period of high stress, “love”.

All in all, this was an excellent story! The epic battle of good vs. evil is a historical setting is reminiscent of books such as Paolini’s Inheritance Cycle and Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings Trilogy. If you enjoy historical fiction with a touch of fantasy, I highly recommend you check out Neil O’Donnell’s People of the Sword! I’m looking forward to the sequel!… (més)